Today I presented my ''What's New in SQL Server 'Denali''' deck to about 40 attendees at SQL Saturday #65 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Attached below (and here) are the slightly updated slides and samples.

I see this question a lot: ''I have a SQL Server 2008 R2 database. Can I attach it to a SQL Server 2008 SP2 instance?''
Part of this stems from the confusion over exactly what 2008 R2 is in the first place. It is not a service pack to SQL Server 2008; it is its own, full-fledged version. A lot of people don't fully realize this ...

In a previous post about changed system objects in Denali, I talked about the changes to memory-related DMVs due to underlying changes in the memory manager. The SQLOS team has posted a great introduction to these changes, and they plan to post more details in future posts. In the meantime, and due to a question yesterday from Tom ...

In my previous job, we had several cases where schema changes or incorrect developer assumptions in the middle tier or application logic would lead to type mismatches. We would have a stored procedure that returns a BIT column, but then change the procedure to have something like CASE WHEN <condition> THEN 1 ELSE 0 END. In this ...

On Wednesday I presented my ''What's New in Denali'' presentation in Charlotte, NC. Attached is a .zip file containing the PowerPoint presentation, as well as the scripts used in the demos and some sample snippet XML files.

One complaint about SEQUENCE is that there is no simple construct such as NEXT (@n) VALUES FOR so that you could get a range of SEQUENCE values as a set. In a previous post about SEQUENCE, I mentioned that to get a range of rows, you should use the system stored procedure sys.sp_sequence_get_range. If you've tried this stored ...

One of the reasons for contained databases (see my previous post) is to allow for a more seamless transition when moving a database from one server to another. One of the biggest complications in doing so is making sure that all of the logins are in place on the new server. Contained databases help solve this issue by creating a new ...

Sorry to call this out in a separate post (I talked about a bunch of SSMS Connect items the other day), but Aaron Nelson (blog | twitter) jogged my memory today about an issue that has gone unfixed for years: the custom coloring for Registered Servers is neither consistent nor global.
For one of my servers, I've chosen a red color to show in the ...